If we can imagine a time when all of our energy is generated by renewable means, will we reach a point that we are degenerating the ability to renew? For instance, if you imagine a windmill generating X amount of electricity, the wind power that went into that amount of electricity is now lost to the environment at large. If you imagine a world-wide landscape of windmills, then is it possible that these very windmills will one day absorb a measurable fraction of the atmosphere's wind energy? And what will this do to the environment overall? The same thing would apply to any kind of scheme to harvest tidal energy. After all, the human race uses an awfull lot of power. I don't suppose this will actually be a problem soon. It'll take centuries, most likely. To me, though, it seems like a good reminder that you can't get something for nothing and we'd be wise to keep that in mind.
2007-07-18
02:46:07
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7 answers
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asked by
Robert K
5
in
Green Living